Volume 10, Issue 25
He referenced, but did not dwell, on the issues of the conflict. Rather, he took the approach to diffuse the hatred by humbly asking for reconciliation and acts of kindness from both sides of the war to alleviate the pain wrought from separation and destruction.
America now finds itself bitterly divided on issues encompassing constitutional rights. The recent opinion rendered by the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, has inflamed emotions to the point of civil unrest and violence. References by supporters of both sides of the issue have evaded the central point of the controversy. This is not about government dictating laws that take control of a woman’s health by denying her control of her own body. This is about determining when a life is a human being, and therefore, equally protected by the Constitution for all individual personal rights.
Like slavery, the constitutional rights of the unborn and the mother have been cast into jeopardy by deeming certain rights of individuals superior to others. No nation can survive without equal due process for all citizens.
The Supreme Court’s main jurisprudential point in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was that abortion is not specifically stated as a constitutional right of a woman. Therefore, by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution, the decision to regulate abortion was returned to the states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Any direct comparison to the right to bear and keep arms is incongruent to the legal analysis of abortion. The Second Amendment of the Constitution clearly enshrines this right as an undisputed Constitutional right. Therefore, it is not delegated back to the states for regulation.
What is imperative to consider now is the seriousness of fear, anger, pain, and hopelessness felt by certain segments of American society. Emotions ignited by what is perceived as personal attack can only be diffused by sincere empathy for all involved on both sides of the governmental conflict.
President Biden has taken the position that a woman’s decision restricted on whether to have an abortion is a healthcare crisis. And further, he has attacked the Supreme Court as partisan, biased, and destructive as a constitutional branch of the government. By his own rhetoric, he is encouraging those who take matters in their own hands to defy the order of determining constitutional rights in the United States. Such inflammatory words can lead to anarchy.
Jesus Christ set the example for how to deal with emotional conflict. He was asked by the Pharisees to condemn to death an adulteress woman. An angry mob demanded the Old Testament punishment of stoning her to death. Christ picked up a stone and asked of the crowd to let he who is without sin throw the first stone. Slowly, one-by-one, the crowd dispersed. By self-examination, their hateful emotion was diffused. He then turned to the woman and asked her, who is left to accuse you? Finding no one, he said then neither do I. He did admonish her to go and sin no more. He did not compromise on the principle of the law. Yet, he showed the woman harmony of compassion.
At the close of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln sought to embrace the harmony of compassion to bind up the nation’s wounds.
Lincoln followed the tenets for harmony of compassion to unite a people. He diffused the anger of the angry mob. He was non-judgmental on the ultimate cause of the conflict. He related to the personal needs and problems of those accused. He found no one that should not be forgiven. And finally, he stated that the law is to be respected, binding society in unity of cause and purpose.
The relationship nurtured and sustained through the mankind-government covenant requires elected leaders to bridge the emotions of all political pugilists for the necessity of compromise of Supreme Court rulings and the ultimate process of democracy at the ballot box.
In the spirit of Abraham Lincoln,
“…but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes…
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds…”
Our goal now as a country must be to provide support for all women facing a difficult pregnancy. Children’s needs must be met as a priority for the fulfillment of their ordained destiny.
Now is the time to renew our bonds with each other to perpetuate, as a nation, the only hope for liberty possessed by the world and the generations.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?